Folk Stories

Abstract Close attention to the nature of fiction reveals a number of issues which bear on mental fictionalism, here understood as a view that proposes a fictionalist treatment of folk psychology. After sketching a few such issues, the chapter unearths difficulties for a figurative fictionalist approach, concentrating on Adam Toon’s recent attempt to understand folk psychology in terms of Kendall Walton’s notion of prop-oriented make-believe and its relationship to metaphor. But while attention to the nature of fiction creates obstacles for those sympathetic to mental fictionalism, it also suggests opportunities. Utilizing a distinction between being true in a fiction and being true to a story, the chapter sketches the beginnings of a brand of mental “storyism” that departs from mental fictionalism but may do justice to some fictionalist ambitions. Finally, it is suggested that attention to the nature of fiction offers a potential new solution to the so-called “fictionalist suicide” problem.